The Razorbill Looks Like a Bird From the Future

The razorbill looks like it flew out of a science fiction film. A sharp black-and-white suit, a thin white pinstripe running from eye to bill, and a beak so deep and flat it could pass for a blade.

It is a cousin of the puffin, but where the puffin went for cute, the razorbill went for cool. Most of its dives are fairly shallow, around 25 meters, but some birds have been recorded diving to 120 meters, deeper than a 30-story building is tall. It flies well too, which its giant flightless relative never could. The great auk was hunted to extinction in 1844.

Why does the razorbill’s bill look like that?

Honestly, nobody is sure. The bill is deep, flattened side to side and crossed with vertical grooves near the tip, and one of those grooves carries a crisp white line. Scientists have floated a few ideas, from courtship display to helping the bird judge distance, but none has been properly tested. The white line from eye to bill is just as much of a puzzle. One idea is that it helps water flow smoothly past the eye as the bird chases fish underwater. For now it remains beautiful and unexplained, which we rather like.

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Razorbills are monogamous and often stay with one partner for years, returning to the same cliffs to breed from Iceland and the UK to Norway and eastern Canada. Their chicks leave home in the most dramatic way possible. At 17 to 23 days old, long before they can fly, each chick jumps from the cliff edge into the sea, and its father follows to guide it out onto open water.

They can be long-lived, too. A typical breeding adult lives about 13 years, and the oldest one on record reached nearly 42. Since 2021 the species has been listed as Least Concern, though conservationists note the change reflects better counting more than a real recovery.

If nature had a design award, the razorbill would be a strong contender. See more of evolution’s clever engineering in our guide to animal defense mechanisms, meet the kākāpō, a parrot that smells good, or visit Iceland’s remote Westfjords, where seabirds crowd the cliffs every summer.

Cover photo by Markos90 via Wikimedia Commons.

By Moss & Fog Staff

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